(Creative commons licensed video produced by Amanda Murphy as part of Royal Holloway’s ADAPT project)
BBC Radio Wales reporter Robert Thomas interviews Steve Harris (On The Air Ltd.) and Prof. John Ellis (Media Arts, Royal Holloway University of London) about the ADAPT re-enactment based simulation exercise with North 3/CM1 (CMCR9). Steve, the restorer of the vintage truck explains about the history of CMCR9, and John Ellis tells us about the ADAPT research project and the reconstruction being staged with the truck.
This video was recorded just over a year ago (May 2016), during a reconstruction of the outside broadcast truck CMCR9 recording a darts match. This OB truck was Pebble Mill’s original CM1 and later became Manchester’s North3.
I involved in the design/manufacture of the CMCRs 4-12 when I was employed by the manufacturer, PYE TVT. I spent many hours developing the sound desk, a PYE original. It had a group of 10 channels and two groups of five, plus three independents, making a total of 23 channels I would love to know how much of the original desk survives. It was originally designed with linear Painton stud faders, but these were not as smooth in operation as the ‘quadrant’ types which were more familiar at the time, so early-on in production they were replaced with conductive plasic faders, which had to be specially made as the PYE design used the fader the the feedback-loop round the channel amplifier, rather than a straightforward attenuator. Happy days !
The PYE vans were designed in Cambridge, with production in Royston, just South of Cambridge.
Andrew Coulson – subsequently in BBC’s planning and installations departments.